Chapter 1: Urban Space
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CHAPTER 1: URBAN SPACE Introduction Ea tanta est urbs ut ex quattuor urbibus maximis constare dicatur ... (So vast is the city that it is said to be four of the greatest cities standing together ...) Syracuse was the most important city of ancient Sicily. Diodorus (26.19.1) called Syracuse a TCTpaJtoXig, a description which closely mirrors Cicero’s above (Verr. 2.4.118). This description reappears in the fourth century AD in Ausonius’ ordo ur- bium nobilium (16-17) as ‘quis <sileat>quadruplices Syracusas’.1 From its foundation about 734/3 BC,2 down to the Byzantine period and its sack by the Arabs in AD 878, Syracuse maintained an actual or perceived dominant role in Sicily, in the island’s af fairs and throughout Magna Graecia. Moreover, it is remarkable to note that Syracuse was almost the sole urban community in ancient Sicily to be occupied continuously from its foundation. Its Greek, Sikel or Elymian neighbours: Messene,Tauromenion, Naxos, Katane, Gela, Akragas, Selinous and Segesta, were all at one time or another destroyed and left without inhabitants. Some of these catastrophic events, such as those at Tauromenion, Messene and Katane, were brief in the overall histories of the sites, others, such as those at Gela, Kamarina and Selinous, were of long if not permanent duration. Because of its uninterrupted settlement patterns, Syracuse was unique in Sicily. Syracuse was also, by far, the largest city in ancient Sicily.3 The circuit walls, for which the city became justly famous, enclosed a greater area than did the Aurelian Walls at Rome. The overall length of the fortifications is usually given as 180 stades, (33.2 kms/just over 20.6 miles); the northern defences alone were thirty stades in length 1 Ausonius by then ranked Catania (Katane) one ahead of Syracuse in his list o f the twenty most famous cities of the Roman empire. This statement must surely only apply to the later imperial period, and may result from the devastation caused by the Franks in the late third century or could just as easily be a personal rather than an official appraisal. He follows Cicero in assigning four distinct quarters to Syracuse. Strabo, 6.2.4, however, includes Epipolai as a fifth part o f the city. There were obviously two versions o f the description. 2 For the foundation date see Leighton, 1999, 222-23; cf. F. de Angelis, Megara Hyblaia and Selinous: The Development of Two Greek City-States in Archaic Sicily, Oxford 2003, 13. 3 According to H.-P. Drogemiiller, Syrakus: Zur Topographic und Geschichte einer griechischen Stadt, Heidelberg 1969, 53, Ortygia covers 50 hectares, while that area around the agora - the first to be colonised on the mainland - covers another 70 hectares. The later expansion o f Akradina to the southern edge of Epipolai added 114 hectares and finally Akradina expanded to 135 hectares. Tyche was a further small extension of 30 hectares mainly to the north of Akradina, while Neapolis, a much larger extension, corresponding to the present archaeological zone, another 110 hectares to the west and north. Epipolai, later included within the defensive circuit walls, was a larger area than the rest of the city’s suburbs added together. Epipolai, the highest point of the city reaching 150 metres (rather less than 500 feet), is about seven kilometres (4 miles) in length, and four kilometres (2.5 miles) in width above Akradina, H.-P. Stahl, Thucydides: Man s Place in History, Swansea 2003, 201. 9 Syracuse in antiquity (5 kms/3/4 miles).4 The city had fortifications from an early date and the earliest walls joined the mainland suburb of Akradina both to the agora and island of Ortygia. And when Tyche was developed this area was also fortified and thus each of the ‘cities’ came to possess its own defences. However, a consolidation process occurred during the tyranny of Dionysius I, who witnessed the vulnerability of the city when the Epipolai plateau fell into enemy hands, and decided on the construction of circuit walls enclosing all four cities and the neighbouring higher ground overlooking the city.5 Syracuse was the most populous city of Sicily (Cic. Verr. 2.5.65), with about 200 000 inhabitants when the city was at its greatest extent. And since it had a very benign climate where the sun always shone, says Cicero (Verr. 2.5.26), this factor no doubt contributed to its attraction as a destination to settle. It was, moreover, the most affluent of the Sicilian cities (Cic. Verr. 2.4.131-134); and there are various comments about its wealth and its renowned art and architecture. ... such great wealth has been obtained by the people of Syracuse that their name has be come synonymous with those who have too many riches.6 (Strabo, 6.2.4) Its civic buildings, indeed its entire urban landscape, drew admiring comments from observers in antiquity. You will often have been told that Syracuse is the largest of the Greek cities and the most beautiful of all ... what you have been told is true. Its position is not only a strong one but also is attractive to contemplate, from whichever direction it is approached, by land or by sea. (Cic. Verr. 2.4.117) We know, therefore, that Syracuse’s urban space compared more than favourably with that of its Sicilian and southern Italian neighbours. However, to what extent was Syracuse the ‘jewel in the crown’ of ancient Sicily and Magna Graecia? Was it the yardstick by which other cities measured their own endeavours in town planning, in the construction of their public buildings, and the public ornamentation of their cities? Can any indication of Syra cuse’s place in ancient Sicily be retrieved by judging its remains, and of the standard and extent of those urban monuments which were raised during the period of Hellenic domi nation of Sicily in particular? The following discussion concentrates on the general urban area of Syracuse, its various districts or suburbs, its hub both on the island of Ortygia and in and around the agora and the Great and Small Harbours. So significant are the places of entertainment and the places of religious cults that they are discussed here separately.7 4 From Eurialos to the Scala Greca is a distance o f about 5 kilometres, but from there around the coast to Akradina then to the island and back up to Neapolis and Epipolai to Eurialos along the south slopes produces the overall distance. 5 See Chapter 4. 6 Cicero, Verr. 2.4.120-135, gives some idea o f the wealth mostly of the temples, (see Chapter 3), pillaged by Verres. As it had recovered from the depredations of the Second Punic War, Diod. 26.20.1, so it did again; and when sacked in AD 878 its treasures were described as ‘fabulous’, M.l. Finley, Ancient Sicily, London 1979, 189. 7 See Chapter 3. 10 Urban space The Site of Syracuse Arkhias ... met with certain Dorians at Zephyrium ... who had left the company of those who had founded Megara.8 He took these with him and with them founded Syracuse. The city flourished because of the country’s fertility and its useful harbours. The citizens became great rulers while tyrants still governed them. The Syracusans dominated the other states in Sicily, and when they were freed from autocratic rule they liberated those who had been made slaves of barbarians. Sailing from Corinth, Arkhias founded Syracuse about the same time as Naxos and Megara were founded. It is claimed that when Myskellos and Arkhias went to Delphi together to consult the oracle, the god demanded to know whether they chose wealth or health. When Arkhias preferred wealth and Myskellos health, the oracle assigned Syracuse to the former to found and Kroton to the latter. (Strabo, 6.2.4; cf. Thuc. 6.3.2) Syracuse was not the sole city on Sicily to have been originally sited on an offshore island.9 The Phoenician colony of Motya, south of the harbour of Eryx (Drepana), in a shallow lagoon (,stagnone) similarly occupied an island, now the Isold S. Pantaclea. It was connected from the island’s northern end to the Birgi sector of the town, which lay on the mainland at the northern entrance to the bay, by a narrow causeway 1.7 kilometres in length (approximately a mile). The city was partly destroyed by Dionysius I in 397 BC, retaken but then abandoned by the Carthaginians for the stronger site at Lilybaeum, now Marsala. Motya has remained largely deserted down to modem times. Because of its lack of subsequent development this site provides some illuminating evidence of the early development on Ortygia.10 11 There are a number of obvious similarities. Both Motya and Ortygia were island fortresses with circuit walls that hugged their respective shorelines." The entire eastern or seaward side of Syracuse was also to be protected by walls and towers from at least the time of Dionysius. The fortifications of the Small Harbour at Syracuse may well have been based on the (admittedly) much smaller cothon, a fortified inner harbour or repair yard, on Motya. The cothon probably could not accommodate more than a dozen triremes and the entrance is also very narrow. At Syracuse the Small Harbour became a much more elaborate affair and had berthing facilities for up to sixty triremes. But both were enclosed with walls and towers and so made inaccessible to besiegers or pirates. And the concept appears Motyan or at least Phoenician/Cathaginian. The Northern Gate at Motya was a sophisticated defensive building, with a pincer effect in front to isolate and expose attackers, and this is also reflected in the construction of the Epipolai Gate, close to the 8 Megara Hyblaia, Thuc.